Who Should Be The 4th #1 Seed?

The Big Ten has been the best and deepest conference in the country this season. That Michigan State and Ohio State both have tougher strengths of schedule rankings than Kansas and Missouri helps to prove that.

Coming into today, Ohio State and Michigan State both have at least two more top-25 wins than Kansas and three more than Missouri.

The Buckeyes and Spartans tied for the Big Ten regular season title (with Michigan), and they split their season series. Whoever wins today’s game can truly lay claim to being the better of the two and thus deserving of a higher seed. Missouri is the Big 12 Tournament champion, but Kansas won the regular season title; they split their two meetings. Though I think Kansas’ resume is more impressive, there is not clear line of difference between the two, making them perfect to be on the same seed line.

In terms of the eye test, both Michigan State and Ohio State are playing terrific basketball right now, each having dispatched top-15 teams as recently as yesterday. Missouri is obviously peaking as well, but no more so than either MSU or OSU, and thus not enough to compensate for their comparative dearth of quality wins.

So that’s my pick: the winner of the Michigan State-Ohio State game should be the 4th #1 seed; and I think that’s who will get it as well.

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